Medical, Health and Safety Blog

Practicing Car Seat Safety

I could still remember and still very fresh in my mind the good idea created by one organization in giving away tens and thousands of car seats at no extra cost so everyone have the chance to have one for safety reason. That move was very commendable and very laudable, in fact, they should be nominated for Nobel Peace Prize for such a great act. In this industrialized age world were motorized vehicles are increasing in staggering numbers, and no holding up, it is just wise to put our kids on car seats when we are traveling with them in the car.

And I am a very big advocate of safety first than comfort, so kids below 8 years old must be on car seats all the time when moving unless the child exceeds the height/weight limits set by the manufacturer. At the same time, no child below 13 years old should be sitting in the front seat at all times until they reach the height/weight limits too or when the regular seat belts are fitting properly already on your child.

Those are not my own guidelines but the basics of car seat safety set by safety authorities and regulators. According to experts, generally, kids should be at least 4 feet 9 inches tall and between the ages of 8 and 12 years before they can graduate from booster seats then be allowed to use adult seat belts. And most importantly, no child should ever be sitting free and unharnessed while riding in a car or even sitting on someone’s lap. So if you value the life of your child or if you still want to see them grow older then you should not exchange comfort from safety.

I brought up this topic once again because just a few days ago while driving in the city streets, I saw a child (pictured above) sitting on the lap of her/his mother in the front seat. Probably this child is just a year old or less yet the parents allowed it to be in the front. So it’s a big blow to the noble project of the organization that I mentioned above. They have tried their best to come up with solutions to promote safety by giving away car seats for free and it seems that it is still a long way in solving this increasing problem. And we will continue to see horrific fatalities from car accidents this kind of attitude and if we don’t start practicing car seat safety.